JenJay... is the special tour you got a regular thing for those with fed credentials or was it an extra special thing? DH is a 'fed' and if we ever go, I would love to be able to take the special tour as well.

Hmm, I'm not sure. Couldn't hurt to ask?

DH has DOJ/BOP credentials and when a friend heard we were going he told us to be sure to show them and get a good tour, since Alcatraz is a BOP facility. We first approached a guide and she took us to the hospital area with a small group she was showing around (not sure who they were). DH actually ended up helping guide that because there were some aspects she couldn't explain and he was able to. After that she wanted to take us to a few more places she had questions about so we got to see the chapel and upper tiers of the cells.

Then she told us to find one of the two Rangers because even she wasn't allowed access to the more restricted areas. When we finally found one DH said "I heard if I show you my BOP credentials I can do some extra poking around. Is that true?" the Ranger said "Maybe..." DH said "You really need to see them?" and Ranger said "Yep." So DH produced, they were checked, and he said "Okay, what do you want to see?"

Essentially what it boils down to - was the crime something that affected the nation, or just the state? If the crime involves national (federal) land, national (federal) employees, national (federal) funds, crossing state lines, etc then its a federal crime. If the crime was local its state.

I think one exception is kidnapping though, which I believe is a federal crime even if totally localized within a state.

You can have kidnapping at the local level. I've seen a few kidnapping cases come through the county where I work.

I was going through some old threads and this one caught my eye. I am going to break it down further then federal and state to the local county and city level. Most states in the US are divided into smaller counties (a parish in Louisiana). For each county there is usually a county sheriff that is an elected official that has law enforcement background. When you are convicted of a state crime that has a sentence of less then a year you are housed in county jail which is usually in the county seat (where the district and magistrate courts are located and the county offices). For example, DUI is 1-5 days in jail, it depends on the state law, and usually work release (picking up trash on the roadway or cleaning the local park) and a fine and a loss of driving privileges. If the crime has a longer sentence then the inmate is sent to a state prison that can be anywhere in the state. Within the state prison system there are different levels of prison from minimum to medium to maximum. An inmate that starts in a max prison with good behavior may be transferred to med. The different levels determines the freedoms you are allowed in the prison setting. In the prison my husband works (medium) there is also a separate facility for minimum. In min, there are up to 60 inmates in a large dormitory and in the med they are housed two to a cell. There is only one max in the state and that has death row. Medium is a misnomer because there are "lifers" at the medium prison. In California there is a prison (Pelican Bay) that they send the inmates that commit crimes in other prisons, it is considered to have the most infamous prisoners in the US (Charles Mason etc). The "hole" in most prisons is 24 hour solitary confinement. At my Dh job an inmate in the hole gets out for a shower by themselves with the two guards and 30 minutes alone in the yard. Inmates are sent to the solitary for committing infractions in prison for up to 6 months depending on the offense. I hope that answers some questions.

Essentially what it boils down to - was the crime something that affected the nation, or just the state? If the crime involves national (federal) land, national (federal) employees, national (federal) funds, crossing state lines, etc then its a federal crime. If the crime was local its state.

I think one exception is kidnapping though, which I believe is a federal crime even if totally localized within a state.

You can have kidnapping at the local level. I've seen a few kidnapping cases come through the county where I work.

Technically, if I kept someone from leaving a particular room, I could be charged with kidnapping. That would not, however, be considered a felonious level of kidnapping, as far as I know.

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"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends" - Harry Potter

Also, the issue is not just 'where' the crime was committed. For example, if a person sends an email to the White House threatening to kill the President, it's a federal crime - whether they did it from their home computer, office, library, whatever - and they would go to federal prison. Actually there was a case where a woman did that (from a college library computer) and she served 18 months in a federal prison.

Essentially what it boils down to - was the crime something that affected the nation, or just the state? If the crime involves national (federal) land, national (federal) employees, national (federal) funds, crossing state lines, etc then its a federal crime. If the crime was local its state.

I think one exception is kidnapping though, which I believe is a federal crime even if totally localized within a state.

You can have kidnapping at the local level. I've seen a few kidnapping cases come through the county where I work.

Technically, if I kept someone from leaving a particular room, I could be charged with kidnapping. That would not, however, be considered a felonious level of kidnapping, as far as I know.

It depends where you are. In my state, that would be false imprisonment, not kidnapping.

Essentially what it boils down to - was the crime something that affected the nation, or just the state? If the crime involves national (federal) land, national (federal) employees, national (federal) funds, crossing state lines, etc then its a federal crime. If the crime was local its state.

I think one exception is kidnapping though, which I believe is a federal crime even if totally localized within a state.

You can have kidnapping at the local level. I've seen a few kidnapping cases come through the county where I work.

Technically, if I kept someone from leaving a particular room, I could be charged with kidnapping. That would not, however, be considered a felonious level of kidnapping, as far as I know.

It depends where you are. In my state, that would be false imprisonment, not kidnapping.

Kidnapping is a state crime unless the abductor takes the victim across state lines or out of the country, it takes place on federal property, or the victim is a federal employee. There might be a few other circumstances, like if the kidnapping occurs while the bad guy is already committing a federal crime (like if someone robs a bank and then carjacks someone to get away, the robbery is already a federal crime so I believe the Feds will handle the entire case). I imagine serial kidnappings that take place over multiple states might be handled federally, assuming the link can be made. Seems like that would be a better idea than having each state handle each case separately but I don't know.

There are times when a state can't or chooses not to prosecute a case and the Feds will step it in and pick it up but I don't think that's very common.

I don't live in USA, so I can't say for certain how the law goes there. I watch a lot of crime documentaries (and drama) and I have certain qualifications in Australia, but that's no use either on the legal question.

I can help you out with one thing though.

If you want good and proper and reliable information about anything - look somewhere other than Wikipedia.